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Google Adds Google+ to its Enterprise Portfolio | Oct 31, 2011 | Collaboration Platforms | Analyst: Brad Shimmin Event Summary October 27, 2011 -- Google announced that Google+ is available to people who use Google Apps at college, at work or at home. Enterprise customers can now manually turn on Google+ for their organization. Once Google+ is turned on, enterprise users will just need to sign up at google.com/+ to get started. For customers who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have chosen to enable new services automatically, Google+ will automatically become available to all of their users over the next several days. | Read Press Release | Quick Take Analytical Summary • Current Perspective: Very positive on Google's decision to add Google+ to its enterprise-focused Google Apps for Business product portfolio, because this move will immediately put the company back into a competitive stance opposite rivals within the collaboration platform marketplace. With Google+ integrated across Google Docs, Calendar, Gmail, Sites and Marketplace, et al., the company can meet rivals head on in delivering a comprehensive social networking suite tailored to span both work and consumer use cases. • Vendor Importance: Very high to Google, because the company has heretofore lacked any sort of central, unifying user interface capable of connecting the dots between applications in its wide-ranging Google Apps for Business portfolio. Google+ serves as a central user experience that will both increase the value of its individual Google Apps products (by socializing them) and create a consumer-tested face for Google Apps for Business that will help Google erase its earlier social missteps with Google Wave. • Market Impact: Very high on the enterprise social networking platform marketplace, because Google's announcement immediately alters the upper competitive echelon, putting pressure on rivals IBM, Jive, Microsoft and others, particularly those with small and mid-market customers, where Google has had much success. Over the long haul, however, until Google rolls out a security and governance program specific to Google+ in the enterprise, this move could backfire should Google+ come under fire for security and privacy shortcomings. CLIENTS ONLY Current Analysis Perspective Competitive Strengths and Weaknesses Response & Recommendations Buyer Actions Analytical Perspective | Client access - Full report in Collaboration Platforms | More information Top Top

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Google+ is now available with Google Apps

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011

Posted by Ronald Ho, Product Manager

Google Apps fans, today we’re ready to add you to our circles. Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world, and now Google+ is available to people who use Google Apps at college, at work or at home.

Starting now you can manually turn on Google+ for your organization. Once Google+ is turned on, your users will just need to sign up at google.com/+ to get started. For customers who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have chosen to automatically enable new services, Google+ will automatically become available to all of your users over the next several days.*

Google Apps users will have access to the same set of features that are available to every Google+ user, and more. In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, you’ll also have the option to share with everyone in your organization, even if you haven’t added all of those people to a circle.

Google+ at home, at work and at college
You use Google Apps in lots of different ways, and we expect the same for Google+. Apps users from artists to doctors to parents to students to teachers have told us that they are ready to join the 40 million people already sharing on Google+.

Circles is a great way to share relevant content with the right people. With Circles, your photography crew doesn’t have to get an update about your morning workout, your triathlon team doesn’t have to see all your thoughts on the latest camera gear, and your project teams can be kept separate from all of this.

Hangouts with extras, which combines multi-person video chat with screen sharing and collaboration in Google Docs, lets you work together on projects even when your team can't be in the same room. Whether you’re out of town, working on a project with a distributed group, or just don’t feel like walking to the next building for your meeting, Hangouts with extras can give your team the productivity boost it needs.

Many students and teachers have sent us their ideas about how they can use Google+ to teach, learn, work, and play.

For those of you who’ve already started using Google+ with a personal Google Account and would prefer to use your Google Apps account, we’re building a migration tool to help you move over. With this tool, you won’t have to rebuild your circles, and people who’ve already added you to their circles will automatically be connected to your new profile. We expect this migration option to be ready in a few weeks, so if you’d like, you can go ahead and get started with your Apps account today and merge your connections once the tool is available.

It took more technical work than we expected to bring Google+ to Google Apps, and we thank you for your patience. This integration is just the beginning. We’ll continue to add features and improve the way that Google+ works with Google Apps, and we encourage you to share your ideas.